Press Releases

jul 10, 2006

Berlin , Germany/Juvisy Sur Orge, France, 10 July 2006 - When Materazzi's ball hurtled towards goalkeeper Barthèz with amazing speed and perfect timing, it was the photographers from Agence France Presse [AFP] that recorded every centimetre of its path from his forehead to the back of the net 1. These accredited professional photographers work with the best camera equipment and demand memory cards with the highest recording speed and capacities to suit their requirements. It was an honor for SanDisk ® (NASDAQ: SNDK) to be able to sponsor AFP with SanDisk Extreme ® III cards ranging from 2 GB to 8 GB 2.

Millions look onBoth companies have brought the highest level of quality to this partnership. Didier Guèrin, spokesman for Agence France Press: "Since 1835 we have had an excellent reputation. Today, 2,000 employees in 165 countries work on maintaining that standard. We realize that billions of World Cup fans worldwide follow our second-to-second news coverage in the newspapers, on TV and on the Internet. Every day we publish a total of around half a million words and something like 700 photos; all of these must meet our standards of editorial quality. Our photographers often work under extreme circumstances, not only during the Tour de France or the Formula 1 season, but also in Somalia, Darfur, Sulawesi and Urugstan. Rain, heat, darkness, cold, speed - they are able to reproduce all of these faithfully with the reliable cards from SanDisk."

Up to 20 MB per secondFor memory card producer SanDisk the partnership also provides a useful practical case study. Tanya Chuang , senior retail marketing manager at SanDisk, said, "It goes without saying that an intensive test period preceded the introduction of the SanDisk Extreme III cards. We recognize the photographers from Agence France Press as extraordinarily demanding professionals who are satisfied with nothing but the best. Their experiences are very valuable and help us to develop new cards with even faster recording speeds and still more storage capacity. The cards that we now offer vary from 2GB to 8GB capacities and are equipped with ESP technology which enables them to read and write at least 20MB per second (MemoryStick PRO Duo has a write speed of 18MB/sec, 20MB/sec. read speed.)3 They are resistant to shocks, vibration, and temperatures between -25°C and +85°C. This sturdiness gives the technology an impressive life expectancy. If the photographers have questions, they can contact our Extreme Technical Support Hotline, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

SanDisk, the SanDisk logo and SanDisk Extreme are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the U.S. and other countries. The ESP Technology logo is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s).

1 These high resolution pictures taken by AFP with a SanDisk Extreme III memory cards are neither able to be diffused or published except with a clipping dedicated to this release or the SanDisk- AFP corporation